


Working It Out

by FrazzledSquidz



Series: Us Together [1]
Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Character Study, Drabble, Introspection, Kissing, M/M, Mentions of Anxiety, Short & Sweet, learning a business, they're so damn cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-29 02:22:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8471890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrazzledSquidz/pseuds/FrazzledSquidz
Summary: A quiet moment with Wylan and Jesper.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Well I read Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. And then I read both of them again less than a week later. And then I wrote this. I just have a lot of feelings, especially about these two T-T
> 
> Spoilers for Crooked Kingdom.

“Wy?” he heard Jesper call, coming closer. Wylan was sitting on the floor, knees drawn up, hiding on the side of the bed facing away from the door. He almost felt like a kid all over again, hiding from his nanny and trying to avoid the inevitable confrontation with his father. 

But Jesper was someone he cared about and who cared about him, and his father had been bested and was still in jail for the moment, and Wylan was no longer a child. 

“Here,” he called out softly, resting his head against the soft mattress behind him. 

He heard Jesper in his heavy boots enter the room and slowly come around. He had a strange habit of almost always wearing his shoes when he was inside, despite Wylan’s encouragement that he could wear socks or slippers. 

“Hey,” Jesper greeted softly, tilting his head in concerned confusion at finding Wylan’s hiding spot. He came over and sat down next to him, mirroring his position with his knees pulled up to his chest. “You know you’re supposed to hide _under_ the bed, right?”

Wylan smiled without feeling. “I might be too big now.”

Jesper’s long dark hands fiddled absently with the loose folds in his pants. Since working with the Grisha tutor his insane restlessness had eased a little, but he was always still in motion. “Did you hide there a lot as a kid?”

He nodded easily. When they had first moved into his father’s house, Wylan had gone around and tried to dispel all the ghosts that haunted him, showing Jesper where he would hide, where he had been endlessly (fruitlessly) tutored, where he had first met the young Alys, where his mother used to paint… Any memory that brought him pain he wanted to share, because the more he spoke about it the less it hurt, usually. 

There was also a part of him that wanted to share everything with Jesper and to encourage the Zemeni boy to do the same with him. He hated living under secrets and lies, waiting for cruel surprises to come around with the darkness. Not that Jesper kept much from him, but he did still show some lingering reluctance to display his Fabrikator abilities in front of him, to show off what he’d been forced to keep hidden for most of his young life. 

“This isn’t about those guys at the meeting earlier, is it?” Jesper asked. “Because they obviously didn’t know what they were talking about. Also I can always shoot them.”

“Please don’t shoot our business partners,” Wylan gently admonished. 

“Even though they deserve it?” 

Jesper accompanied Wylan to all the meetings he had to attend now in dealing with his father’s business, always introduced as an assistant. He would accept all documents handed down the table, summarize them for Wylan in a dismissive tone, and let Wylan handle the decisions and actual running of the Van Eck empire. Even though he couldn’t read, he had been prepped for this role since he was born. After all that he’d endured the past year, Wylan found that it was easier to step into than he’d ever imagined. 

However, many of the elderly merchants looked down on Wylan and his scant sixteen years, deeming him an unacceptable replacement of his father before he ever even had a chance to prove himself. He had managed to hold his ground through everything so far, but this morning one of the merchants had gotten indignant and boisterous, going so far as to yell at Wylan and tell him he was going to capsize the dynasty his father had worked so hard to create. 

It had ended with Jesper drawing a gun on the merch and ordering him out of the house, which had upset everyone else at the table and caused them to question Wylan’s decision to “hire a canal rat as an assistant,” which had angered Wylan to the point where he’d called an abrupt end to the meeting without anything having been decided. 

Jesper had gone off to cool down while Wylan had spent some time with his mother, soothing the anxiety bubbling up inside of him by reminding himself why he was doing all of this. Once she had been taken down for a nap, he had found his way to this room to hide, not knowing what else to do. 

“I would say I’m sorry I pointed a gun at that guy,” Jesper drawled, “But I don’t want to lie to you.” He sounded carefree, but Wylan knew him well enough to hear the trace of unhappiness in his voice. 

“I’m not mad at you,” Wylan told him, reaching out and touching Jesper’s bony leg. 

Jesper’s dark hand caught his, his thumb rubbing absent, anxious lines along his knuckles. “Maybe you should be,” he replied, words coming out in a rush. “I’m really not fit for this and everyone can see it. You should hire someone who actually knows what they’re doing and who can keep their cool.”

“I don’t trust anyone else,” Wylan said simply, meeting Jesper’s clear gray eyes. 

He sighed, bouncing one leg rapidly. “If I’m the only one you can trust then the Barrel really did get to you.”

“Jes, stop,” Wylan murmured, squeezing his hand. “We’re both just figuring this out as we go along; we don’t have to be perfect at it.” He really wasn’t worried about the other boy at all. In fact, he felt that Jesper made everything calmer and more bearable, somehow. Wylan didn’t know if he’d have the courage to do all of this without him. 

Jesper brought his free hand up to rub over his short hair. “Okay but what if I’m not even _good_ at it?”

With a sigh, Wylan sat up, turned to Jesper, and deftly straddled his hips, the Zemeni’s boy’s long legs stretching out to accommodate him automatically. He grabbed Jesper’s face and stared into his surprised eyes. “Stop,” he whispered, just before he brought their lips together. 

He felt Jesper relax as he deepened the kiss, his hands coming up to bracket Wylan’s hips.

This. This was what he needed, not some hiding spot he’d had as a child when he couldn’t face his father. With Jesper anything was possible, from dismantling a pulley system to embarrassing his father in front of his associates. 

“I think,” Wylan said, breaking their kiss, “That more of the Barrel’s politics should come into these meetings.”

Jesper blinked, pulling his gaze from Wylan’s lips to his eyes. “The Barrel doesn’t really have politics?”

He smiled. “Exactly.” Wylan kissed him again. “The Barrel gets things done.” And again. “And the Merch Council has grown so used to things being done a certain way.” And again. “Maybe we should mix it up a little.”

“Wylan Van Eck,” Jesper gasped, sounding affronted even though he looked delighted. “We really did convert you!”

Wylan grinned, somehow feeling both shy and proud. “Do you regret it?”

Jesper’s hand came up and cupped the back of Wylan’s neck, bringing him down closer. “I love it,” he whispered against his lips before he sealed them in another kiss. 

Wylan could feel his cheeks heating with a blush while his heart thrummed in happiness within his chest. He loved it, too. All of it.


End file.
